We let people down...Now it's time to rebuild

LAST MONTH, voters across the UK answered the question: “Who do you trust?” with a simple answer.

- Tom Tugendhat

“Not you”.

We all know why. We let people down. And while we should be proud of much of what we accomplished, we lost our way.

That doesn’t mean turning our back on everything we achieved.

Despite Covid and the war in Ukraine, this year our economy grew the joint fastest of any G7 country. Our vaccine programme was the best in the world.

And Universal Credit and our education reforms improved the lives of millions of people.

But our achievements were hidden by in-fighting.

We promised to help people start their own lives and shape their own futures.

Some of our actions failed to match those pledges.

We promised lower immigration. It went up. We promised lower taxes. They went up. We need to deliver on our promises if we are going to be trusted again. That’s hard to do in opposition, but we can start by sorting ourselves out.

Too often we forgot who we were in politics for.

As Conservatives, we’re not here to serve the party, or to play political games and divide ourselves into factions. We’re here to unite under a conservative agenda and serve you. We need to remember whose side we’re on.